Aquarius Radiometer and Scatterometer Weekly Polar-Gridded Products to Monitor Ice Sheets, Sea Ice, and Frozen Soil

Abstract

Space-based microwave sensors have been available for several decades, and with time more frequencies have been offered. Observations made at frequencies between 7 and 183 GHz were often used for monitoring cryospheric properties (e.g. sea ice concentration, snow accumulation, snow melt extent and duration). Since 2009, satellite observations are available at the low frequency of 1.4 GHz. Such observations are collected by the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, and the Aquarius/SAC-D mission. Even though these missions have been designed for the monitoring of soil moisture and sea surface salinity, new applications are being developed to study the cryosphere. For instance, L-band observations can be used to monitor soil freeze/thaw (e.g. Rautiainen et al., 2012), and thin sea ice thickness (e.g. Kaleschke et al., 2010, Huntemann et al., 2013). Moreover, with the development of satellite missions comes the need for calibration and validation sites. These sites must have stable characteristics, such as the Antarctic Plateau (Drinkwater et al., 2004, Macelloni et al., 2013). Therefore, studying the cryosphere with 1.4 GHz observations is relevant for both science applications, and remote sensing applications